Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, this amendment removes the Pacific Coast for the total moratorium on oil exploration imposed under this legislation.

It will make my California Democratic colleagues' heads explode, but there are also many other reasons to support this amendment.

California is already pursuing these Green New Deal policies pioneered by Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Californians are now paying among the highest electricity and gasoline prices in the country as a result.

In the last decade, while U.S. oil production has grown 130 percent, it has declined in California by 20 percent. In 2000, California produced 50 percent of the petroleum it consumed every year--50 percent. That figure is now down to 30 percent.

In 2000, California imported 25 percent of its oil from foreign countries. Today, it imports 60 percent. In just the last year, California's oil purchases from Saudi Arabia ballooned from 98 million barrels to 135 million barrels. These foolish policies are contributing to one of the highest unemployment rates, the largest homeless population, and the highest effective poverty rate in our Nation.

Yet, leasing the 240 million acres that are currently off limits could support an additional 165,000 jobs and inject $15 billion into our economy every year.

President Trump reversed the Obama-era war on energy, and last year America became the largest petroleum producer on the planet, outpacing both Saudi Arabia and Russia for the first time.

These policies are also contributing to the lowest unemployment rates for Americans of African and Hispanic heritage in our Nation's history, rising wages after an entire lost decade of economic stagnation, and an overall rate of economic growth almost twice what we are seeing in Europe or that we saw under the Obama Administration.

And let us consider the environment. California's coastal waters suffer from natural oil seepage of 86,000 barrels a year into the Pacific Ocean, the equivalent of one Santa Barbara oil spill every year. Development of our offshore resources reduces the pressure that produces seepage.

Having grown up in coastal Ventura County 50 years ago, I can tell you firsthand of the conspicuous decline in natural seepage that has occurred in the years since the Channel Islands field opened. And lest we forget, it is the abundance of natural gas that has reduced our country's carbon dioxide emissions far below what expensive and oppressive government regulation has accomplished in Europe.

California leads the Nation?

Let me repeat: While our Nation's oil production is up 130 percent, California's is down 20 percent. While our Nation has achieved energy independence, California's reliance on foreign oil has more than doubled. That is trailing the Nation, not leading it.

My State, that has among the most bountiful oil and natural gas resources in the Nation, has the least political will to develop them. I offer this amendment to highlight this point and to warn the rest of the Nation where it leads. And also--let's be honest--to watch my California Democratic colleagues set their hair on fire.

And I am ready to close when they are.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chair, I readily concede that this amendment is anathema to the ruling elite in Sacramento. They have had their way with California. The policies they advocate on the House floor today are the same policies they have inflicted on my once Golden State during my lifetime.

Those policies have produced the highest effective poverty rate in the Nation, among the highest energy prices in the country, and a historic exodus of Californians fleeing to other States.

The road to Venezuela leads through California, and I urge the rest of the Nation to ask themselves: Is that really a road they want to take?

We went down that road in the 1970s. The bill's author is, perhaps, too young to remember those dark days when our Nation was held hostage to foreign oil, when cars lined up for blocks to get gas and every meeting of the OPEC nations was a national crisis.

I check the daily AAA survey of gasoline prices. Today, in California, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.63. In South Carolina, it is $2.23. That is a $1.40-a-gallon difference, and I ask the bill's author from South Carolina to consider if his constituents are ready to enact California policies and then pay for them through the nozzle.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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